By Alan Cohen
The United States was intended by its founders to be the answer to an age-old problem: inequality. The founders’ solution was first to state the self-evident — that all men are created equal. Then democracy, the balance of powers, and the federal system were all intended to assure, insofar as possible, equality of opportunity, of impact on our government (of, by, and for the people) and before the law. There were the two threats to be protected against: “mob rule” and rule by the rich.
The system worked reasonably well until corporations escaped from their carefully drawn charters after the Civil War. It took the Populists, the Progressives and then Franklin D. Roosevelt to build systems that put the genie back in the bottle. And from 1935-1975 we were the most successful civilization in history: admired, envied and emulated.
Seventy-five percent of us thought our government was doing a good job back then; while for the past 10 years, only 20 percent have.
That’s because the business community, especially the corporate elite, began to organize in the 1910s in response to the Progressives. The National Association of Manufacturers developed the “Big Myth” (government bad, business good), and it and its newer allies (Chamber of Commerce, etc.) have patiently marketed that misinformation for more than a hundred years; with increasing success since the 1960s, and with increasing dominance since 1980.
Large corporations have once again escaped regulation, and this time pretty much control all three branches of our state and federal governments. Both major parties are now parties of the rich, and the countervailing forces, unions in particular, have dwindled.
The corporations have demanded, and are getting, a redirection of funds once dedicated to the safety net, the arts and education to corporate welfare.
The mainstream media and the universities increasingly provide us with corporate narratives, textbooks and research, as they, too, increasingly depend on corporate financial support. And inequality has grown under each administration for the past 50 years.
The two dominant political parties no longer pay any attention to the wishes of their constituents, which is why, when we work to protect flora and fauna or the climate, to improve health care and housing, etc., we have little success. Changes that once were, and could again be, routine, are, according to our present power structure, “unrealistic.”
The only viable solution is a third party, not beholden to corporations or the rich and focused on a fair redistribution of our collective productivity, re-establishment of competition and a rejuvenation of government of, by, and for the people.
The extant third parties have failed because they insist on taking positions on controversial issues. That is how the corporations have kept the focus away from inequality — by promoting polarization around controversial issues. Once we again have a prudent government of, by, and for the people, we can address the controversies as the founders intended — in debates in Congress with executive and Supreme Court oversight, representing the will of the people — or by national referenda (or in nonfoundational cases by letting each state decide).
We The People, a new political party dedicated to representing the will of the people, is on the ballot in Oregon. It plans to elect candidates devoted to the people’s needs: candidates who believe in capitalist competition, not monopoly or oligopoly, and so in the appropriate regulation of corporations, plans to promote equality of opportunity and before the law.
The party will not dissipate its energy and support by taking positions on divisive issues (death penalty, abortion, etc.) Along with state and national efforts, we will act locally — to improve quality of life, address excesses and inequalities in the cost of housing, insurance, taxation and utilities; corruption, electromagnetic radiation, parking, zoning, auditing and farming; to gather and share information about judges and candidates for councils and various other offices, many of whom run unopposed, so that we can vote wisely rather than arbitrarily without information.
Democracy is not a fairy tale. No one is coming to rescue us. If we find ourselves too busy and leave the task to others, we will have built not a democracy, but just another authoritarian regime. If demonstrations were sufficient, they would have an identifiable impact; but though governments pay lip service, policies rarely change in response. What is needed is direct political involvement now.
Please join We The People. You need it and it needs you. Ninety-nine percent of us will benefit; and the rich will be saved from their obsessions.